What movies have you seen recently?

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The Innocents (1961)

One of my all time favourite movies is The Others (2001) and a few days ago I watched a YouTube video in which someone said that The Others had taken a bit of inspiration from The Innocents, so I really wanted to check it out. I thought it was pretty great most of the way through, I laughed a lot at the old fashioned English dialogue (it was (is?) a UK movie) which made it fun for me, but I also gasped in horror several times and was genuinely scared now and then, which I had not expected from an old b&w ghost movie from the early 60s. I was impressed by the movie but the ending really slowed down for me, I wasn't scared or really even interested by the final scenes, which left me feeling flat and kind of tainted my overall impression of the movie. I still liked the film overall though.

Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999)

It was pretty hilarious at times but there was a lot of super problematic stuff in it...including excessive use of the R slur, mostly aimed at a character that I guess was supposed to be autistic? That and a few other things kinda ruined the movie for me.

Hackers
Fun

I used a cat as bait...my bride likes kitties so I've persuaded her to watch the movies in our collection that have Orangey the Cat in them. There's not too many of them in our collection and they're reasonably good.

Last night we started with This Island Earth [1955]. I think it is one of the better 1950s Science Fiction films...a group of films she usually avoids.

I am pleased to report that my bride liked the movie! And she enjoyed Orangey's performance...a supporting character and only a speaking part if you include a very upset meow but Orangey did good!

Day Shift.

Vanilla Sky (2001).

Did not like it.

Escape From Angola (1976)

1976 - I remember it quite well! One of the biggest international news stories was the bloody civil war in Angola, where three guerilla movements were fighting for control of the country after the departure of the Portuguese colonial administration in 1975. There was the left-wing MPLA, backed by the Soviet Union and Cuba, the more Western-orientated FNLA, and the joker in the pack was UNITA, led by a very rum character called Jonas Savimbi.

All of this attracted particular attention in the UK when a number of captured British mercenaries underwent a show-trial in the Angolan capital Luanda, and several of them were executed.

So I was looking forward to seeing this film, hoping that it would draw on these events and reflect the political and military situation to at least some extent. No such luck, of course. It's all dumbed down, with the only guerilla movement being the fictional GVA, who seem to have no clear objective here except to seize some explosives to destroy a dam, and to attack an American family's wildlife reserve.

This family is in fact the main focus of the film, along with a lot of animal-based activity, some of it played for laughs. The family doesn't even bother to escape from Angola in the end, which makes one wonder about the film's title.

Despite all of this, it's still just about watchable.

An Unfinished Life.
Very good.

Summer of Soul(The Revolution Will Not Be Televised)
Documentary Directed by Questlove about until recently a forgotten piece of history , the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival known as the "Black Woodstock" because it occurred the same summer as Woodstock and the wide variety of talented acts of different genres that performed. The festival occurred over six Sundays(including one concurrently with Woodstock). The documentary does a good job of explaining the context as well as showing the performances.

Anybody interested in music, history, or groovy 60s fashion will enjoy the documentary.

She-Devil (1989)

It was fairly awful.

SLC Punk!